--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "mainstream20016" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "do.rflex" <do.rflex@> wrote:
[snip] > > Having now read most of your posts in this thread, I get the impression that this current effort to establish a 'secular' TMO is mainly an idea 'you' have concocted and are promoting and that it didn't come from Maharishi. > Maharishi intends to make TM available to all persons. He made tremendous progress when TM was taught as a secular technique. The overtly-religious Sidhi program then became the focus of the TM movement, followed by numberous overtly-religious programs of the TMO. As such, Maharishi's intention to make TM available to all persons will not be achieved. You didn't answer my charge that this proposal of yours "didn't come from Maharishi." > > I also get the impression that you wouldn't hesitate to proceed to > > accomplish a 'secular' organization without his direct approval. > from #151346: ..." It would be wise for the TMO to license a separate organization to teach TM in the manner taught prior to the Siddhis program, an organization that values the secular aspects of TM." Yes. Those are *your* words; *your* proposal. And, you're admitting that there *are* religious aspects to TM - and apparently you are willing to conceal them to promote TM. I don't see that Maharishi is implementing *your* proposal to create a separate 'secular' organization to wholesale teach TM without the Puja in front of the student and wholesale teaching without requiring the initiate to bring the fruit, flowers and handkerchief. Are you going to proceed to do this on your own? > The establishment of a firmly secular organization to teach TM widely has many advantages for the current TMO, the main one being that TM will again have a chance to be learned by all. Hope springs eternal. > > In my eyes it's bad enough that the key substance of the initiation, the Puja, its importance and its implications, is being relegated to darkness, and that the would-be meditaters are totally excluded from it. In my view, your proposition is not only dangerously contra to maintaining the purity of the teaching, but flat out dishonest. > Current TM instruction does not require the student to observe the puja. I'd like to see corroboration of that claim *and* an elaboration on your claim that the fruit, flowers and handkerchief can be wholesale supplied by the teacher. I can accept that in some isolated, rare circumstances that this could be applicable - but *not* as a wholesale policy. In any case, it appears to me that this is *your* idea, not Maharishi's. Here's a quote from you which confirms to me that this is *your* idea, not Maharishi's: "The idea I submitted of puja performance out of sight was a suggestion- I don't know the specifics of current instruction in schools." - and it also makes me question your claim that: "Current TM instruction does not require the student to observe the puja." > > I also find it appalling that a TM teacher would resort to having to hide truths about TM from the general public. > A religion has been constructed around TM, and is keeping TM from being widely accepted. In essence, the process of shrouding TM with religiousity relegates TM to obscurity, the greatest offense. According to whom? AND - That didn't answer my charge about truths about Transcendental Meditation being hidden from the public. TM clearly *is* religious. Your proposal reminds me of the Christian fundamentalists who want 'creationism' taught in the public school system as they attempt to claim that 'creationism' is 'secular.' That strikes me as perhaps well-intentioned on their part but just as dishonest as what you're proposing.